Navy (9-3) vs. Oklahoma (6-6)
When	Friday, Dec. 27, 2024 | 12:00 pm (ET) / 11:00 am (CT)
Location	Fort Worth, Texas | Amon G. Carter Stadium
Television	ESPN (Courtney Lyle, Rene Ingoglia, Morgan Uber)
Live Video Stream	WatchESPN and ESPN+
Listen	Navy Football Radio Network (Joe Miller, Keith Mills, Scott Wykoff) WBAL 1090 AM / 101.5 FM (Baltimore) | WFED 820 AM, 94.3 FM (Frederick, Md.) | WFED 1500 AM (Washington, D.C.) | WFED 104.5 FM (Western Fairfax / Loudon, Va.) | WNAV 1430 AM, 99.9 FM (Annapolis) | KWFN 97.3 FM (San Diego) | WGH 1310 AM / 100.9 FM (Norfolk, Va.) | WJGM 105.7 FM (Jacksonville, Fla.) | KIKI 990 AM (Honolulu, Hawai'i) | Satellite: Sirius Ch. 106 or 201, SXM App Ch. 963 | Apps: Audacy (WNAV and KWFN) and TuneIn (WBAL)
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Game Notes	Navy | Oklahoma
Season Statistics	Navy | Oklahoma
Social Media	@NavyAthletics | @NavyFB | Facebook | Instagram

Opening Kick
•    Navy (9-3) and Oklahoma (6-6) meet on the gridiron for just the 2nd time overall and the 1st time in a bowl game as the two will play in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on Friday, Dec. 27 at 12 noon (ET), 11:00 am (CT) in Fort Worth, Texas. Navy leads the all-time series 1-0, a 10-0 victory in Norman in 1965.
•    This marks Navy's 25th bowl appearance (12-11-1 all-time) and the 3rd time Navy has appeared in the Armed Forces Bowl.  The Mids defeated Middle Tennessee State 24-6 in the 2013 Armed Forces Bowl and lost to Louisiana Tech 48-45 in 2016.  Navy has won two-consecutive bowl games and 5 of the last 6.
•    This will be the 1st time Navy has played an SEC team in a bowl game since 1954 (1955 Sugar Bowl) when the Mids knocked off Ole Miss 21-0. Navy has also played current SEC teams Missouri (1961 Orange Bowl and 2009 Texas Bowl) and Texas (1964 Cotton Bowl) prior to those schools being in the SEC.
•    Navy last played a team from the SEC in 2011 when the Mids lost at South Carolina 24-21.
•    Oklahoma, the 6th-winningest program in FBS history with 950 wins, will be playing in a bowl game for the 26th-consecutive season and the 58th time overall (31-25-1), the 4th most by any school. The Sooners, playing as an SEC member for the first time in 2024, picked up a signature win in November, dropping then-#7 Alabama 24-3 to earn bowl eligibility. Of the team's 12 opponents, 8 were ranked among the nation's top 25 during the season.
•    Navy is coming off a complete domination of Service Academy rival #19 Army, knocking off the Black Knights 31-13 in the 125th playing of the Army-Navy Game presented by USAA. With wins over Air Force and Army, the Mids won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy which is presented annually to the winner of the football competition among the 3 major service academies (Navy, Air Force and Army) and is named in honor of the President of the United States. The team will visit the White House this spring.
•    Navy won the 2 Service Academy games this year by a combined 45 points, which ties the 2019 Navy team for the biggest combined CIC blowouts since 2007 when Navy beat Air Force and Army by a combined 46 points. 
•    If Navy can beat Oklahoma in the bowl game, it would make the 2024 team just the 6th in school history to win at least 10 games in a season, joining the teams from 1905 (10-1-1), 2004 (10-2), 2009 (10-4), 2015 (11-2) and 2019 (11-2).
•    The win over Army gives Navy victories over 2 ranked opponents for the 1st time since 1958 when Navy defeated #8 / #7 Rice 20-7 and #14 / 12 Michigan 20-14. Navy defeated #24 (Coaches) Memphis 56-44 earlier this year. It's just the 5th time Navy has beaten a ranked Army team (1943, 1950, 1954, 1957, 2024) and the 1st time since 1957 when the Mids knocked off #10 / #9 Army 14-0.  
•    Navy was predicted to finish 11th in the American Athletic Conference and ended the year tied for 3rd with Memphis (Navy beat Memphis head-to-head) with a 6-2 mark. 
•    Landon Robinson (Jr. / NG), Colin Ramos (Sr. / LB) and Rayuan Lane III (Sr. / S) were named First-Team All-AAC by the league head coaches. Justin Reed (Sr. / DE), Dashaun Peele (Sr. / CB) and Riley Riethman (Sr. / P) were named to the second team. The Mids did not have a player selected to the third team, while Connor McMahon (Sr. / OT)and Ben Purvis (Jr. / OG) were named honorable mention all-conference.
•    Navy is the only FBS team in the country that played just 2 home games in the final 9 regular-season contests. 
•    Navy is the only FBS team in the country that did not play a one-score (8 points or less) game this year. 
•    Navy's 386 points scored in its 12 games this season are 174 more than it scored in its 12 games last year (212).
•    Navy has scored a touchdown on the 1st play of a drive 5 times this fall which is tied for the 3rd most in the FBS.
•    Navy is averaging 249.3 rushing yards per game, the 7th-best average in the FBS and the program's best since 2019 when it averaged a school-record 360.5 rushing yards per game. 
•    Navy is 34-39 (.872) in the red zone with 31 (.795) of those scores resulting in touchdowns. Navy is #2 in the country in red zone touchdown percentage, just behind Indiana (.818). 
•    In Navy's 9 wins this fall, the Mids have outscored the opposition 104-7 in points off turnovers (14-7 vs. Bucknell, 7-0 vs. Temple, 7-0 vs. Memphis, 7-0 vs. UAB, 7-0 vs. Air Force, 31-0 vs. Charlotte, 14-0 vs. USF, 7-0 vs ECU and 10-0 vs. Army). In the 3 games Navy has lost, the Mids have been outscored 48-0 in points off turnovers (27-0 by Notre Dame, 7-0 by Rice and 14-0 by Tulane). 
•    Riley Riethman's (Sr. / P) 44.4 career punting average (221 punts, 9,807 yds) is the best in school history (min. 50 att.). He owns 4 of the 5-best single-game performances in Navy history (min. of 5 punts). Riethman is 8th in the nation in punting average this fall, averaging 45.7 yards per punt, which would be a school record. 
•    Eli Heidenreich (Jr. / Snipe) and Alex Tecza (Jr. / FB), who grew up in Pittsburgh and have known each other since the first grade, have combined to score a touchdown for Navy in 17 of the last 22 games dating back to the 2023 season. Heidenreich's 6 touchdown receptions this season is tied for Navy's single-season touchdown catches record which has been done by 4 different players. Heidenreich was named a Third-Team All-American by College Football Network.
•    Rayuan Lane III (Sr. / S) made his 42nd-consecutive start at safety for the Mids against Army which is the longest active streak for a safety in the FBS and second longest by a player in the secondary. Lane III has 3 forced fumbles this year which is tied for the 10th most in the FBS. Sporting News named him to its Midseason First-Team All-America Team, while he was also named a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.  College Football Network named Lane III the National Special Teams Player of the Year, a First-Team All-American on Special Teams and a Third-Team All-American on defense.
•    DaShaun Peele (Sr. / CB) became the 1st player in school history to return 2 interceptions for a touchdown in the same game in the Mids' win over Charlotte. It was the 3rd time this year Navy returned an interception for a touchdown, as Rayuan Lane III (Sr. / S) had an 86-yard interception return for a touchdown with 23 seconds left in the game against Memphis that clinched the victory for the Mids. Peele is tied for 3rd in the country and leads the Mids with 5 interceptions, including 1 against Army that set up Navy's 2nd touchdown. Peele was named an Honorable Mention All-American by College Football Network.
•    Blake Horvath (Jr. / QB) has thrown a school-record tying 13 touchdown passes on the year. Ricky Dobbs set the record with 13 in 2010. Horvath accounted for 4 touchdowns in Navy's 31-13 victory over Army, rushing for 196 yards and 2 TDs on 24 carries, while throwing for 107 yards and 2 TDs.
•    Horvath, with 1,091 yards rushing, is the 1st Navy player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since 2019 when Malcolm Perry rushed for 2,017 yards. He is the 1st Navy quarterback to surpass 1,000 passing yards in a season since 2019 when Malcolm Perry threw for 1,084 yards. Horvath's 1,261 passing yards are the most by a Navy player since Will Worth threw for 1,397 yards in 2016.
•    Horvath is the #3 graded runner (all positions, min. 150 att.) according to Pro Football Focus, while Lane III is the #7-rated safety (min. 725 snaps) and Heidenreich is the #2-rated receiver among all position players (min. of 50 targets). Connor McMahon (Sr. / OT) is the 11th-best offensive tackle and the best pass blocker (min. 675 snap counts) among offensive tackles. 

Broadcast Coverage
•    The Armed Forces Bowl will be televised by ESPN with Courtney Lyle, Rene Ingoglia and Morgan Uber on the call.
•    The Navy Football Pregame Show with Joe Miller, Keith Mills, Scott Wykoff and special commentary from John Feinstein will get underway at 11:00 am (ET) on the Navy Radio Network, followed by game action beginning at 12 noon (ET) with Miller and Mills on the call. 
•    Following the contest, Miller, Mills and Wykoff will recap the day's events in a 30-minute postgame show.

Scouting Oklahoma
6-6 Overall  |  2-6 SEC
Head Coach: Brent Venables

•    Ignore the record, Oklahoma is an outstanding football team. All you need to see is one score - Oklahoma 24 Alabama 3. That tells you the quality of football team the Mids are facing.
•    Of Oklahoma's 6 losses, 2 of the teams are in the College Football Playoffs (Tennessee and Texas), 2 just missed the playoffs (South Carolina and Ole Miss) and another (Missouri) is ranked. The other loss was at LSU and if you've ever been to a game in Baton Rouge, you know nothing comes easy at Tiger Stadium. 
•    In addition to Alabama, Oklahoma beat a Tulane team (34-19) that beat Navy 35-0, defeated Temple 31-3, Houston 16-12, won at Auburn 27-21 and defeated Maine 59-14. 
•    While it's hard to talk about individual players for Oklahoma as you don't know who will be playing due to opt outs and the transfer portal, it's safe to say the Sooners are one of the two most talented teams the Mids will face in 2024 (Notre Dame being the other).
•    The Oklahoma rush defense is ranked 12th in the country, giving up just 105.8 yards per game. The Sooners also average 2.9 sacks per game, which ranks 16th, while their 7.7 tackles for loss per game is 9th best.
•    The Oklahoma defense gives up just 318.3 yards per game of total offense, which stands 21st nationally. Oklahoma's 5 defensive touchdowns are the third most in the FBS, while their 12 fumble recoveries rank 4th best.
•    The Sooners rank 10th nationally in net punting (42.6).
•    The Oklahoma offense has thrown just 6 interceptions on the year (12th).

Navy's Bowl History
•  Navy owns a 12-11-1 record in bowl games, winning 5 of the last 6 bowls in which it has played.